1 78 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



weight to those who, from general reasons, believe in the 

 general principle of evolution. Breaks often occur in all 

 parts of the series, some being wide, sharp <ind defined, 

 others less so in various degrees; as between tlfe orang and 

 its nearest allies between the Tarsius and the other 

 Lenmridge between the elephant, and in a more striking 

 manner between the Ornithorhynchus or Echidna, and all 

 other mammals. But these breaks depend merely on the 

 number of related forms which have become extinct. At 

 some future period, not very distant as measured by cent- 

 uries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly ex- 

 terminate and replace the savage races throughout the 

 world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes, as 

 Prof. Schaaffhausen has remarked,* will no doubt be ex- 

 terminated. The break between man and his nearest allies 

 will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a 

 more civilized state, as we may hope, even than the Cauca- 

 sian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now 

 between the negro or Australian and the gorilla. 



With respect to the absence of fossil remains serving to 

 connect man with his ape-like progenitors, no one will lay 

 much stress on this fact who reads Sir C. Lyell's discus- 

 sion, t where he shows that in all the vertebrate classes the 

 discovery of fossil remains has been a very slow and fortuit- 

 ous process. Nor should it be forgotten that those regions 

 which are the most likely to afford remains connecting man 

 with some extinct ape-like creature have not as yet been 

 searched by geologists. 



Lower Stages in the Genealogy of Man. We have seen 

 that man appears to have diverged from the Catarrhine or 

 Old World division of theSimiada? after these had diverged 

 from the New World division. We will now endeavor to 

 follow the remote traces of his genealogy, trusting princi- 

 pally to the mutual affinities between the various classes 

 ami orders, with some slight reference to the periods, as 

 far as ascertained, of their successive appearance on the 

 earth. The Lemmiila? stand below and near to theSimiada?, 

 and constitute <i very distinct family of tho Primates, or, 

 according to HacKel and others, a distinct order. This 



* " Anthropological Kvif\v." April. 18G7, p. 236. 

 j " Elements of ii^oIo'V," 1^>5, pp. 583-563. "Antiquity of 

 Man," 1863, p. i43. 



